The Catholic Business Leader’s Struggle Between Selfishness and Love
In the competitive business world, success is often measured by profit, efficiency and influence. For the Catholic business leader, success must also be defined by how well we love and serve others. We are called to integrate faith and leadership, yet we often fall short of this “both-and” calling.
As much as we aspire to lead with integrity and selflessness, our hearts frequently resist. Rather than prioritizing the good of those who interact with our businesses, we are tempted by self-interest. The very place where love should flourish — the human heart — becomes the battleground between love of God and neighbor and love of self.
We struggle to bring love into leadership. We hear about love at every Mass, yet how often do we forget the message of the readings or the priest’s homily before we even exit the narthex?
Even still, we are called to serve rather than be served. Christ set this standard when he said, “It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-28).
However, leading with humility and love contradicts the natural inclinations of the heart and the “rules” of business. Jesus warns: “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man” (Mark 7:21-23). The Greek word for “defile” here means to be made unholy — to be turned away from God. It moves us further from the holy lives we are called to live all day, every day.
St. Augustine, reflecting on his own struggles, wrote: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” A heart filled with worldly attachments pushes God away from it and in so doing, it pushes away the peace it so desperately seeks.
St. Paul helps us understand our battle between selfishness and righteousness. “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate,” he writes in Romans 7:15. We may want to lead with virtue, but when faced with tough decisions, pressure or financial risk, we are tempted to cut ethical corners, prioritize profits or fail to act with love. Even when we know what is right, we struggle to live it consistently in the workplace.
For many, wealth and influence also create a false sense of self-sufficiency. The more comfortable and secure we feel, the easier it becomes to overlook our need for God. The problem is not wealth and success themselves but how they shape the heart. When used for service and generosity, success is a gift. But when it leads to greed and pride, it becomes a trap.
St. John of the Cross warns us, “God does not fit in an occupied heart.” If our hearts are filled with worldly attachments and sensual distractions, there is no space for God and his message for us.
How do we make room in our hearts for God? We should:
Examine our motivations: Are we leading for God’s glory first?
View our business colleagues as persons, not just assets or objects to be manipulated.
Make business decisions that never run contrary to our Catholic faith.
Recognize and be thankful that leadership is a gift from God and not solely due to our own achievements.
Spiritual leadership, like physical health, requires discipline. Just as strength comes from consistent exercise, deepening our spiritual life is cultivated through prayer, acts of faith, hope and love and time to meditate on scripture.
Though our hearts incline toward selfishness and sin, the good news is they are not beyond redemption. Christ came to transform the human heart. Ezekiel 36:26 prophesies as much: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.”
A heart of stone — cold, ambitious and resistant to love — can be transformed into a heart of flesh, alive with the love of God. This transformation does not mean abandoning business success but orienting your success toward God’s will. We need to be open to the work of the Holy Spirit on us.
The Catholic business leader faces a daily choice: Will we allow our natural selfishness to rule, or will we lead with love? To love as Christ commands goes against the grain of the business world. It means rejecting the temptations of greed and power in favor of a servant leadership mentality.
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